West German Legal Authorities Explain Government Position on Rightist Newspaper

Legal authorities here said today that the West German Government had few avenues of recourse open to it in bringing action against the right-wing Deutsche-Soldaten-Zeitung und National Zeitung for its attacks on the State of Israel because the constitutional provisions against incitement to racial hatred permit only individuals who believe themselves aggrieved to initiate action. It was pointed out that a number of individuals have filed suit against the paper and its editor. Dr. Gerhard Frey. Spokesmen for the Ministry of Interior, answering questions in the Bundestag about the affair, have stressed the legal difficulties of Government action but insisted that the Government was investigating what courses of action were open to it.

Meanwhile, suits have been brought against the paper and Dr. Frey by individuals who considered themselves injured by the paper and it was believed that the state prosecutor will have to take action. The Federal Government does not have the right to ban a newspaper but it can ask the Constitutional Court to take action on the grounds that the paper and its editor were guilty of racial incitement.

The Government has not yet decided whether to ask the Constitutional Court to outlaw the National Democratic Party, a neo-Nazi organization. That group has now decided to continue its activities in West Berlin despite the decision of the Berlin NDP branch to dissolve after the West Berlin city authorities had asked the Allied occupation authorities to order the party’s dissolution in Berlin. The party will hold a special congress in Bayreuth on Feb. 22-23 and will hold its sessions in the Bayreuth City Hall. The city government had sought unsuccessfully to deny use of the facilities to the NPD.

In Goettingen, today, large swastikas were smeared on the wall of a newspaper building by unidentified vandals.